Orange County Courthouse (1845)

View south east, circa 1910 (Courtesy University of North Carolina postcard collection) 

View south east, circa 1890s (from the OCHM, via Betty Eidenier)

View south west, circa 1920

"Very old courthouse in Hillsboro, North Carolina," December 1939 (photo by Marion Post Wolcott, Farm Service Administration)

View south east, circa 1940

View north west, 1962 (photo by MCE, via UNC)

View south west, 1962 (photo by MCE, via UNC)

View north, 1962 (photo by MCE, via UNC)

View west, 1962 (photo by MCE, via UNC)

View south west, 1969

View south west, 1971

Looking southeast, March 1983. (NCSHPO via Tom Campanella)

07.02.2016 (S. Kueber)

From the National Register nomination:

One of the earliest and most architecturally distinguished courthouses in North Carolina, this brick temple-form Greek Revival-style building was designed and built by John Berry, a well-known local architect and builder. The two-story building is three bays wide and five bays deep with a full portico with classical pediment and entablature supported by four fluted Doric columns. Such fine details as the Flemish-bond brick walls, wide cornice, twelve-over-twelve wood-sash windows with flat brick arches, keystones, and stone sills, and the central double-leaf door with fanlight, brick voussoirs, and keystone remain intact. There are four interior brick chimneys and the original two-stage cupola clock tower surmounts the building. The courthouse is at least the fourth on this site. The interior retains most of its original finish, including a pair of open-string Federal-style stairs with foliate brackets, turned balusters and newels and heavy molded handrails, four-panel doors, symmetrically molded frames with cornerblocks, and well-proportioned pilastered mantels. The upstairs courtroom was renovated in the 1880s.

The plaque that was affixed to the front (north side) of the building

Circa 1952 interior photo of the OCHM (via MCE and UNC)

A new Orange County Courthouse, directly to the south across East Margaret Lane, was built in 1954.

From November 1957 to 1983, the second floor of the courthouse was home to the Orange County Historical Museum. From 1954 to ? the Orange County Board of Education occupied the first floor.

National Registry information:

files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/OR0014.pdf

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) images and information:

loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/nc0067